Liquid chemicals are indispensable components for the food processing, industrial, commercial, and institutional markets. Sanitary chemicals are used in manufacturing plants and institutional buildings to ensure safe and healthy environments. ° Detergents are essential for laundry facilities servicing the hospitality, hospital, college, and commercial laundry markets. Kitchens and dishes in restaurants and food service operations must be kept clean. Medicines must be dispensed to hospital patients in a precise manner. Water treatment programs are important for improving the quality of hard waters. Many food processing and other manufacturing operations admix chemicals in a precise manner.
Traditionally, many such chemicals have been mixed and dispensed manually. Moreover, many chemicals are produced and sold in concentrate form, meaning that they must be diluted by employees in order to reach their appropriate concentrations. Such mixing and dilution processes have often caused toxic spills and workplace contamination problems.
A further challenge is caused by the need to admix or dilute these chemicals within very precise dosage requirements. Addition of too much chemical causes waste and lost operating profits. However, too little chemical can prevent the desired chemical reaction for a manufacturing process from taking place.
Yet, many of these liquid chemicals and medical liquid products can be corrosive or otherwise dangerous if they are breathed or come into contact with skin. If spilled, they can damage equipment and property. Thus, liquid dispensing systems have been developed for safe handling and mixing of these chemicals.
The chemicals typically are packaged in a bottle, tote, drum, or other container, and are usually dispensed from the upright container to a mixing machine. A cap with a downwardly extending dip tube is placed on the container to draw the liquid from the bottle. A dispensing tube extends from the cap to a mixing machine or other piece of equipment, which creates the necessary suction to draw the liquid from the container interior. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,988,456 and 6,142,345 issued to Laible disclose designs for a cap containing a valve that opens when the cap is screwed onto the container, and includes a separate umbrella valve for preventing backflow from the dispensing tube to the container and for permitting liquid flow from the container to the dispensing tube in response to suction applied to the dispensing tube.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,669,062 issued to Laible provides a dual outlet port cap for connection by means of dispensing tubes to two different mixing machines or other pieces of equipment. The cap contains two thin, flexible valve seats that are pulled to their open position by means of the suction provided by a downstream mixing machine. The fluid dispensing device of U.S. Pat. No. 5,833,124 issued to Groves et al. constitutes a flexible bottle that is squeezed by hand to produce a positive pressure condition therein for forcing the liquid up through a dip tube to a measuring container. A manually adjustable outlet port positioned at the top of the dip tube in the measuring container permits a predetermined volume of the liquid to be transported from the storage bottle to the measuring container. Finally, U.S. Pat. No. 5,165,578 issued to Laible teaches a vented closure cap for a container that allows gases to vent into or out of the container to provide positive pressure for encouraging liquid in the container to leave through the dispensing tube, and to thwart any vacuum condition that might otherwise produce backflow.
It is popular, however, to operatively connect the container to the dispensing machine in an inverted position. Such inversion allows gravitational forces to draw the liquid out of the container, and eliminates the need for the mixing machine or other recipient device to produce the vacuum necessary to suck the liquid out of the container.
In such an inverted dispensing system application, the bottle containing the liquid usually includes an induction seal across the opening of the throat of the bottle, which is pierced by a sharp cutting edge of an upwardly extending probe located on the dispensing system. Once the seal is pierced, the liquid is free to flow by means of gravity from the container down into the dispensing system. U.S. Pat. No. 5,280,764 issued to Levinrad discloses a water bottle dispenser utilizing this simple principle. Other examples of this type of piercing spout are disclosed by U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,325,995 issued to Harrison et al., and 5,303,732 issued to Jonsson. U.S. Pat. No. 5,337,922 issued to Salkeld et al. teaches a water dispenser with a diaphragm positioned above a water feed tube. Once the water bottle is installed in an inverted position in engagement with the dispenser system, the diaphragm is pushed down so that the feed tube punctures it to enable water to pass through the hole. The purpose of this diaphragm, however, is to keep the end of the feed tube clean and sanitary when a water bottle is not installed on top of the dispensing system.
While this type of piercing spout provides a simple method for enabling water or another liquid to be released from a bottle, bag, or other container, there is nothing to control or stop the flow of the liquid once the container is punctured. Thus, it is known within the prior art to add a valve or other mechanical means to regulate the flow of the liquid from the end of the puncture spout. See, e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,169,691 issued to St. Elmo (pipe coupling for a water faucet); 3,343,724 issued to Malpas (tap for a flexible bag contained in a box); 4,322,018 issued to Rutter (fluid dispenser that pierces a sealable flexible plastic bag within a rigid outer box); 4,574,985 (dispensing valve for an ink bottle); and 5,022,558 issued to Faerber et al. (electromagnetically-operated valve within a beverage dispensing system).
A problem can arise, however, with such inverted bottles due to spillage. If the entire contents of the bottle is drained into the dispensing system before it is removed from the dispensing system, then no such spillage will occur. However, bottles associated with dispensing systems frequently need to be changed or serviced (e.g., a different chemical is needed), which entails uninstalling the bottle from the dispensing system. Because the bottle has been pierced and no other closure means is present, some of the liquid will drain out of the bottle while it is removed from the dispensing system and turned once again to its upright position. If the liquid is water which needs to be mopped up, such spillage is a nuisance. However, if the liquid is a corrosive or other hazardous chemical or medicinal product that should not be touched or breathed, then this spillage can pose a serious environmental or worker safety problem.
Efforts have therefore been made within the liquid dispensing industry to provide the bottle or other container with a sealing plug that can be readily pierced by a nozzle or spout associated with the dispensing system, but will close itself when the bottle and its plug are withdrawn from the nozzle or spout. See, e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,241,352 issued to Doering, Jr. et al. (water cooler), 3,558,022 issued to Zytko (medicine bottle and dropper); 4,060,184 issued to O'Neill, Sr. (butterfly valve for a container opened by a reciprocated rod); 5,031,675 issued to Lindgren (resealable stopper for an ink bottle installed to a printer); 5,465,833 issued to Tarter (slit valve in a bag engaged by a syringe); and 6,328,543 issued to Benecke (slit valve on a fluid container engaged by an upwardly extending probe on a gear pump).
These types of sealing plugs are usually made from rubber or another type of elastomeric material. The resiliency of this material is relied upon to return the plug from its pierced state to its sealed state once the plug is removed from the dispenser system nozzle or probe. In some cases, the pressure of the liquid contained within the container assists with the closure of the sealing plug. See, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 1,241,352 issued to Doering, Jr. et al.
It is therefore necessary in some dispensing system applications to provide a more positive closure mechanism for an inverted bottle or container in order to ensure that the bottle outlet is sealed quickly and affirmatively after the bottle is withdrawn from the dispensing system. Thus, U.S. Pat. No. 5,653,270 issued to Burrows discloses a bottle cap and valve assembly for a bottled water station. The cap includes a “valve member” constituting a movable plate that is disposed within the throat of the bottle. A probe extending upwardly from the top of the water station pushes the plate further into the throat when the inverted bottle is installed onto the water station to open the valve. An annular groove near the end of the probe engages an inward lip on the plate to secure the plate to the end of the probe. The water contained within the bottle flows through apertures in the side wall of the hollow probe and down through the interior of the probe into the water station. When the bottle is uninstalled, the probe pulls the plate back into abutment with the cap to close the valve and disengages from the plate so that the bottle can be withdrawn. In this manner, the bottle cap valve is opened and closed by means of physical counter forces exerted by the probe in response to the installation or removal of the valve.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,246,879 issued to Chadwick shows a valve for a liquid dispensing system. The fluid is contained inside an upper compartment, and flows through an aperture into a bottom compartment whereupon it can be discharged through a drain tube. Disposed within the discharge aperture of the upper container is a spring-biased valve having a frustoconical head that engages a torus valve seat portion of the upper compartment. While the patent disclosure is unclear regarding what means is used to open this valve, it is believed that it is manually operated. The difference in the radial section shape of the valve seat and the portion of the valve that cooperates with it produces only line contact to assure a positive seating of the valve.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,722,635 issued to Earle teaches a valve coupling associated with a container holding photo processing chemicals. The valve constitutes a reciprocating hollow plunger with a flat plate that is biased by a spring against the lower valve housing. A rubber seal surrounding the plunger shaft prevents leakage. A separate probe is manually inserted into a channel in the lower portion of the valve housing to positively push the plate portion of the valve up to expose discharge ports within the plunger that allows the chemicals to flow out of the container. Upon removal of the manually inserted probe, the spring returns the valve to its closed position.
Dispensing systems are also known in the prior art containing spring-biased valves of one sort or another that are automatically opened by installing the bottle or container containing the liquid into engagement with the dispensing system. Thus, U.S. Pat. No. 3,174,519 issued to Pizzurro et al. discloses a cigarette lighter containing butane fuel. The valve contained within the housing of the lighter consists of a ball that is pushed by a spring against an O-ring positioned around the refueling inlet port. A separate refueler storing the butane gas includes a discharge nozzle. When the nozzle is inserted into the housing, it pushes the ball valve away from the O-ring, thereby creating an opening to permit the butane gas from the refueler to flow into the lighter. When the nozzle of the refueler is removed, the spring pushes the ball against the O-ring to close the valve once again. In this manner, the cigarette lighter can be refueled.
U.S. Pat. No. 488,473 issued to Fruen in 1892 provides a water cooler constituting an outer housing and a receptacle holding the water and ice for insertion into the housing. A hollow plug connected to a discharge valve extends into the lower portion of the housing and has a hole in its upper end. Meanwhile, a cap secured to a hollow bushing surrounding the discharge outlet of the receptacle contains a spring-biased valve plate that engages a valve seat along the perimeter of the hollow bushing. A rubber disk secured to the bottom surface of the valve plate prevents the valve from leaking. When the receptacle containing the ice water is inserted into the water cooler housing, the hollow plug of the housing pushes the valve plate away form the valve seat to open the valve, and permit water to flow through the hole in the valve plug to the discharge valve. When the receptacle is taken out of the housing, the spring pushes the valve plate and associated rubber disk against the valve seat to close the valve again.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,431,205 issued to Gebhard teaches yet another water bottle dispensing system containing a slide valve for opening and closing the water bottle. A tubular valve body extends into the throat of the bottle. A sealing ring prevents leakage between the valve body and the bottle neck. A cup-shaped valve member is contained within the tubular valve body in inner telescoping relation. The side wall of the cup-shaped valve member is biased by a spring to physically block holes located along the side wall of the tubular valve member in order to prevent water from passing through the holes. When the bottle is inserted in its inverted condition onto the top of the water dispenser, a probe extending upwardly from the dispenser pushes the cup-shaped valve member up so that it no longer blocks the holes in the tubular valve body. In this opened position, the water contained within the bottle can flow through the holes into the interior of the tubular valve member and into the dispenser. When the bottle is removed from the dispenser, the spring returns the sliding valve to its closed position.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,325,115 issued to Cowland et al. discloses a valve assembly that is connected to the top of a bottle containing granular fertilizer. The valve consists of a ball-shaped member that is pulled by a spring against the interior end of the cap wall to close the valve. When the bottle is inverted and its cap portion is inserted into a coupling unit in the top of a receiving container, a peg on the exterior of the ball-shaped valve member engages an angled slot in the central tube of the coupling member. When the fertilizer bottle is rotated with respect to the receiving container, the peg slides along the angled slot to pull the valve member down or push it up to open or close a gap that forms between the valve member and the cap side wall. By controlling the rotational position of the fertilizer bottle with respect to the receiving container, the size of the gap can be regulated. Hence, the valve of Cowland permits a predetermined flow rate of fertilizer to be delivered to the receiving container. Because this valve regulates the flow of solid fertilizer instead of a liquid, a rubber gasket is not needed to provide a tight seal.
Other fluid dispensing devices known within the prior art include two cooperating valve members for better preventing leakage of the fluid from the storage container when it is disengaged from a lower receiving container. See, e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 497,896 issued to Ruppel in 1893 (gas tank); 2,401,674 issued to Vizay (gas tank); 2,989,091 issued to Lowenthal (cigarette lighter refilling apparatus); 4,874,023 issued to Ulm (water bottle dispenser); 5,694,991 issued to Harris et al. (photochemical container); 5,878,798 issued to Harris et al. (photochemical containers); and 6,539,985 issued to Shanada et al. (ink cartridge refilling apparatus). While one of the valve members is opened by means of a probe or neck of the bottle, depending upon whether the valve is positioned within the storage container or the receiving container, these devices are complicated in design and seem to require a second valve to reduce leakage. Moreover, in many cases an elastomeric seal is provided to further prevent leakage.
It would therefore be desirable to provide a simplified valve closure mechanism consisting of a single valve members for a bottle or other container associated with a fluid dispensing system, wherein the valve is automatically opened when the bottle is installed into the dispensing system, and quickly closed when the bottle is withdrawn from the dispensing system in order to substantially prevent spillage. Moreover, the valve should provide a fluid-tight seal without use of an elastomeric gasket in order to accommodate chemicals discharged by the dispensing system that are incompatible with rubber or other elastomeric materials.